LAOS: Much for Little

Only a week after he arrived amid elaborate ceremonies as the first
Russian en voy to Laos, Ambassador Aleksandr Abramov sat in
shirtsleeves in a seedy hotel room in Vientiane and fumed. King Savang
Vatthana had pointedly declined to invite him to present his
credentials. Neutralist Premier Prince Souvanna Phouma canceled the
important bad ceremony, in which Buddhist priests were to tie a lucky
string around Abramov's wrist. And Souvanna announced the "technical
arrest" of Paratroop Captain Kong Le, Vientiane's military boss, on the
ground that the expansive...